Vegan MoFo Day 13: Soccer Mama

Jackson played his first soccer match bright and early Saturday morning, with Tony as assistant coach.

Olivia and I camped out on the sidelines, ready to cheer on our boys.

It was perhaps not the most even match-up. The other team did a lot of wandering around looking vaguely confused, while Jackson and his teammates scored about five goals apiece. Thankfully, the referee did not announce the actual score at any point.

Victory! Go Pirates!

In the afternoon we attended a birthday party for one of Jackson's teammates. It was a Star Wars-themed party, so the kids played "Pass the Death Star." Ha!

Lining up for the pinata...all eyes on the prize!

When the pinata came down...chaos and candy for all!

Finally, we spent the evening at a soccer potluck at the park. I made my go-to potluck dish, Garden Rotini Salad with Inner Goddess Dressing from Vegan on the Cheap. I doubled the recipe, and the entire bowl was empty within fifteen minutes. I love not taking home leftovers!

All the food gave the kids lots of energy for hill rolling.

Music Lovers

This morning we attended a free music class. Olivia jumped right in.

Jackson took a bit longer to warm up. For being such a little clown, he suffers from the occasional bout of stage fright.

But by the end of class, he was lying on his tummy right in front of the teacher, hanging on every word.

For dinner I had some fontina cheese to use up, left over from my New Year's Eve arancini. So I made baked rotini, using my beloved Costco-brand marinara sauce. I even used my demon-broiler to get the top all bubbly. Easy comfort food.

What I Ate

I've never been one to post everything I eat in a day. While I find that type of food diary interesting, I always feel like my personal diet is too boring to merit chronicling.

But just for today, what the heck.

Breakfast was frosted mini-wheats with flaxmilk.

I just recently started branching out from soymilk, and learned that I love the creaminess of almond milk. This made me think I should see what other milks are out there, so I picked up this flaxmilk at Whole Foods.

Flaxmilk is the opposite of almond milk -- not creamy in the slightest. It's grayish and watery. So I didn't like it on my cereal. But I've also used it to make smoothies and banana soft serve ice cream, and it's just fine in those capacities.

For lunch, I made Nigella Lawson's Pea and Pesto Soup, one of my very favorite soups, a favorite of my kids as well, and such a snap to make.

For dinner, I made a four-ingredient pasta dish.  My recipe is barely even worthy of being called a recipe, but we all enjoyed it, so I'll share it with you.  How can you beat just four ingredients?

Creamy Rotini with Basil (serves 4)

1 lb. rotini pasta

1 jar chunky marinara sauce

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, room temperature (vegan cream cheese works great)

1 cup fresh basil, thinly chopped

1. Boil pasta 7 minutes in salted water until al dente.

2. While pasta cooks, pour marinara sauce into a saucepan and heat gently. When the sauce starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low and stir in the cream cheese. Stir vigorously to combine.

3. When pasta is done, drain it and return it to the cooking pot. Pour in the creamy marinara and stir to coat. Add the chopped basil, reserving some to sprinkle on top of each serving. Serve.

Whew, recording all these meals has worn me out! Time to go relax on the couch. Olivia has the right idea.

Giddy Up

Kids' brains fascinate me. Jackson has never ridden a horse. He's only seen a real horse once or twice. He's seen them in books and on TV, but never shown a real interest. Now, all of a sudden, he's getting the broom out of the closet every chance he gets and riding his "horsey" all around the house!

How do they come up with these ideas, without any kind of suggestion? I don't know, I just think it's really neat. I never spent a great deal of time around little kids before I had my own. Sometimes I feel like a scientist observing these two tiny alien creatures all day long to discover their thought patterns and behaviors.  It's amazing what they seem to "know" without being told. They are always watching and listening, though. Little sponges.

That is one reason why I like to have them in the kitchen with me. I don't have any grand ideas about them becoming famous vegan chefs because they helped me make pasta salad as toddlers, but I'd like them to enjoy and appreciate food and take an interest in how it is prepared.

Last night Jackson helped me make the Garden Rotini from Vegan on the Cheap. He added the different veggies to the bowl, and stirred it all together. I subbed almonds for cashews in the goddess dressing this time around. Aren't pasta salads the best in summer? I eat it cold right out of the fridge.

This morning we met up with another mama for a play date. As I positioned Olivia in the baby swing, I realized it was her first time on a swing! Jackson and I spent tons of time at the playground last summer, but Olivia was too little. Now she gets to try it out. She loved it! Jackson got bored after a minute and wanted to get down and run around, but Miss O was happy to swing back and forth.

Jackson prefers slides over swings these days.

After we got home, we did some more cooking together. First we made lamingtons.

A few weeks ago, I won a giveaway for the Quick and Easy Vegan Bake Sale cookbook. I asked the author, Carla Kelly, which recipe I should start with, and she said that the lamingtons were a favorite among her testers.  I hadn't heard of lamingtons, but apparently they are a popular treat in Australia. Squares of vanilla sponge cake are dipped in chocolate icing, then in shredded coconut.

I have to say, I was really impressed that I baked something that turned out looking this good.  Kind of shocked, actually! 

I'm not much of a sweets baker, but Carla's directions were very easy to follow and the results were beautiful. And tasty! These would be great for a kids' party, work potluck, or, yes, a bake sale! Thanks to Carla and her publisher, The Experiment, for doing the giveaway! I can't wait to try some other recipes from this book.

My sous-chefs and I weren't quite finished in the kitchen.  For dinner we made the Arabian Lentil & Rice Soup from Appetite for Reduction.

So good. It's my favorite recipe from AfR and that's saying a lot because there are so many winners. Cumin-y, lemony, creamy (from the cooked-down red lentils), amazing.

Olivia agrees.

Jackson enjoyed the fruits of his labors, too, but he had to eat and run.

A boy and his horsey, galloping off into the sunset.

It Really Ties the Room Together

Hi guys, how was your weekend? Ours was productive. On Saturday we went to IKEA and picked up a few things for the house. We really needed a new rug for the living room. Monster had clawed up our old rug, so we didn't bring it with us when we moved. Olivia thinks we chose well.

After exhausting ourselves in a store the size of several football fields, we ate at an Indian buffet. I won't name the restaurant because it has gone downhill since we last lived here. The food was OK, but not great.

On Sunday, we took Monster to the dog park in the morning. Then I dropped off some sweets at the Vegan Bake Sale. I made chocolate peanut butter bars.

Later I went back to the bake sale with Jackson and let him pick out some goodies. He was a big fan of the strawberry mini-cupcakes that somebody brought. He ate them up before I could take a picture. Here are some pics from the bake sale. I heard that they made over $1000 - wow!

This morning I was cleaning up my folder of pics from April, and realized I had a bunch of food pics I hadn't posted yet. Here are a few recent creations.

Ziti with mushroom marinara and Field Roast Apple Sage sausage. Man, that sausage is good. Tony thinks it's one of the best faux meats he's tasted. I'll have to try making my own at home.

The marinara was a little spicy for Olivia's taste, so I made her a separate meal. You can't beat the versatile Cheezee Sauce recipe from Vegan on the Cheap for a quick bowl of mac n' cheese.

I guess we've been in the mood for pasta. Here is the Garden Rotini, also from Vegan on the Cheap. Chock full of cherry tomatoes, peas, radishes, chickpeas -- the perfect spring salad. The goddess dressing is so good. I ate this for lunch all week. Olivia loves pasta salad, too.

Did I mention I bought a griddle/grill pan? I wanted one for awhile, but our old stove was not compatible. I haven't tried out the grill side yet, but I love the griddle. Now I can make pancakes in half the time. I made some chocolate chip pancakes to feed the kids for breakfast all week. So tasty with fresh strawberries.

The other day, the kids and I made a quick stop at the Asian supermarket by our house. I stocked up on hot sauces and rice noodles. I see pad thai, pho, and spring rolls in our future! I'll go back soon and take some pictures of their unbelievable produce department. I've never seen so many different kinds of greens! I can't wait to bring some home and figure out how to cook them.

Next...you guessed it...more pasta. Here's the Pasta con Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction.  This one has a verrrry strong garlic flavor. That's not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.  

I wasn't loving the wine sauce, but I think the problem was the wine I used. It was a cheap wine that was on sale at the H-E-B. We are not big wine drinkers, so I didn't feel like buying something pricy. There is actually only one kind of wine I like. It's called 3 Blind Moose and you can buy it at Target. Such sophisticated tastes I have, haha! Do you like wine? What's you favorite kind? I've always been a beer or mixed drink girl, myself.

Continuing our Italian theme, one night I made a pizza with artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and roasted garlic. This is my favorite "gourmet" pizza combination of all time. Who needs cheese?

 

For dessert, I made the kids some "ice cream" by blending up some frozen bananas, soymilk, and a big spoonful of peanut butter.

Last night I made a huge salad with some of my pizza leftovers. The salad had artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, radishes, and grated carrot.

This is the dressing I make whenever I don't feel like looking up a recipe for dressing. It's good on whatever veggies you happen to have lying around.

Sara's Sort-of-Greek Dressing

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Whisk everything together in a small bowl. Makes enough to dress a large, family-size bowl of salad.

Hope you have a great week!